Introduction

While the next-generation Intel chipset is just around the corner, the current Z77 chipset continues to be a very current offering from Intel. So much so that we recently saw MSI launch not only a new motherboard based on it, but a new motherboard series. The new Gaming Series was first seen with the release of the new GTX 650 Ti 2GB Boost Twin Frozr Gaming Series video card last month.

We mentioned in that review that MSI was creating a unified series under the new Gaming Series which would see both video cards and motherboards fall under it. A little like ASUS have the ROG series, we think this is a good idea for MSI. While they've always been strong when it comes to video cards, they haven't always shown the same prowess when it comes to motherboards.

So, what does the new Gaming Series bring to the party when it comes to the motherboard side of things? Well, that's exactly what we intend to find out today. The first thing we'll do is take the time to check out the box before we move into the package to see what extras are being offered from MSI.

Once we've taken a look at the package we'll move onto the board itself covering the main features that are offered. We'll head into the BIOS to see if MSI have changed anything in that area, before we take a look at our testbed, cover the boards that you'll see in our graphs today, and of course cover overclocking, before we finally get into the performance.

Package

Looking at the box design you can see it's very similar to the GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB Gaming Series video card which we looked at with the black and red color scheme and the dragon taking up most of the package.

You can see some of the highlight features on the front, but we'll cover that a bit more on the next page. Turning the box over we see some details on some of the main highlights that are offered including Killer Ethernet, Military Class III OC Genie II, Multi GPU support, Sound Blaster Cinema and Click BIOS II.

Moving inside the package you can see the normal array of paperwork, along with a door knob hanger which says "I'm Sorry Busy Gaming" and an awesome looking case sticker highlighting the fact you're sporting a G Series board.